Dan, the chief priest in charge of the slaughter of sacrificial cattle in the Shang, asked Zhuang Tzu what mercy was.
“Tigers and wolves are merciful,” answered Chuang Tzu.
- What does it mean?
- How can they not be merciful if the she-wolf and the cubs love each other?
- Let me ask about real mercy!
- For true mercy there are no related feelings.
“I, Dan, have heard that without kinship there is no love, without love there is no filial piety. After all, there can be no real mercy without respectful attitude towards parents!
“No, that’s not so,” replied Chuang Tzu. - True mercy is high. Of course, it’s not worth talking about him out of filial piety. In your words, filial piety is not exaggerated, but understated. After all, why, when approaching Ying from the south, do they not notice Mount Minshan in the north? Because she is far from In. That's why it says:
It is easier to respect parents than to love them.
It is easier to love your parents than to forget them.
It is easier to forget your parents than to make your parents forget about you.
It is easier to make your parents forget about yourself than to forget about everything in the Celestial Empire.
It is easier to forget about everything in the Celestial Empire than to make everyone in the Celestial Empire forget about you.
After all, one who has properties forgets about the Highest and Protecting One and indulges in inaction. His benefits extend to the darkness of generations, and the Celestial Empire does not even know about him. How can one only sigh and talk about mercy, about filial piety? After all, with all this - respect for parents and older brothers, mercy and justice, devotion and trust, chastity and honesty - people force themselves to serve their own virtue, all this is not worth more. That is why it is said: “Real nobility rejects royal honors, real wealth rejects the royal treasury, real aspirations reject name and glory.” All this does not change the path.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru